Germany's top official for human rights was due to visit Tibet Wednesday for a dialogue with Chinese counterparts after being denied permission to visit the heavily policed northwestern region of Xinjiang.
German Human Rights Commissioner Barbel Kofler said in a statement that she had wanted to travel to Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million members of the Turkic Muslim Uighur minority have been held in political re-education camps in what China calls a campaign against terrorism and religious extremism.
"I am shocked by reports of the treatment of the Turkic Uighur minority," Kofler's statement said. She said she would "continue to push for permission to visit Xinjiang soon."